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HENRY  MORSE  STEPHENS  COLLECTION 

PAMPHLETS  ON 

ALASKA 

AND  THE  PACIFIC. 


!•   Altamira  y  Crevea,  Rafael. 
The  Share  of,  Spain  in  the 
history  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean*   1917 

2«   Bagley,  Clarence  B»   The 

Waterways  of  the  Pacific 
Northwest.   1917 

3.  Balch,  Thomas  Willing.   The 

Alasko-Canadian  frontier. 
1902. 

4.  Bolton,  Herbert  E.   The  Early 

explorations  of  Father 
Garces  on  the  Pacific  Slope. 
1917 

5.  Bolton,  Herbert  E.  New  light 

on  Manuel  Lisa  and  the  Spanish 
fur  trade. 

6.  Dunning,  William  A.   Paying  for 

Alaska,  1912. 

7.  Howay,  P.  W.   The  Pur  trade  in 

northwestern  development.  1917 

8.  Morrow,  William  W.   "The  Spoilers" 

1916 


8S8600 


< 


-^^ 


^^^ 

^ 

^f^ 


9.   Stephens,  Henry  Morse.   The 
Conflict. of  European 
nations  in  the  Pacific* 
1917 

10.   Teggart,  Frederick  J.   The 
Approaches  to  the  Pacific 
Coast.  1915 


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7 


THE  FUR  TRADE  IN 
NORTHWESTERN 
DEVELOPMENT 

By  F.   W.  HOWAY 

New  Westminster,  British  Columbia 


REPRINTED  FROM  "THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY" 
BY  H.  MORSE  STEPHENS  AND  HERBERT  E.  BOLTON. 
THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY,  PUBLISHERS,  NEW  YORK 


Copyright,  1917,  By  The  Macmillan  Company. 


•«N^V  Mo.SE  ^T.^,„^^ 


THE  FUR  TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT 

F.  W.  HOWAY 

The  Northwest  maritime  fur  trade  owed  its  origin  to  an  acci- 
dent ;  but  the  Northwestern  land  fur  trade  originated  in  design. 
The  former,  growing  out  of  Captain  Cook's  third  voyage,  was  the 
legitimate  successor  of  the  search  for  the  Strait  of  Anian  in  the 
development  of  our  knowledge  of  the  coast.  The  latter  did  not 
come  into  being  until  twenty  years  after  the  inception  of  its 
maritime  predecessor,  the  best  days  of  which  had  by  that  time 
disappeared.  The  maritime  fur  trade  consisted  of  a  mere  series 
of  individual  efforts  and  contained  all  the  elements  of  weakness 
incident  to  such  undertakings;  the  land  fur  trade,  on  the  other 
hand,  so  far  at  least  as  the  territory  west  of  the  Rockies  was 
concerned,  was  carried  on  in  a  systematic  way  by  large  corpo- 
rations or  organizations. 

Except  for  a  few  spasmodic  efforts  —  the  mere  flickerings  of  the 
dying  candle  —  the  maritime  fur  trade  lasted  but  twenty-five  or 
thirty  years.  Originally  devoted  entirely  to  the  collecting  of 
sea-otter  skins,  its  scope  was  soon  enlarged  to  include  first,  the  fur- 
seal  and,  later,  beaver,  marten,  and  the  furs  of  almost  every  kind 
of  animal  to  be  found  on  the  coast.  Ginseng  was  not  overlooked ; 
sandalwood  from  the  Pacific  islands  was  added  to  the  trade; 
and  towards  the  end  even  the  whale  fishery  was  combined  with  it. 
Though  this  ephemeral  and  strangely  diversified  trade  was,  in 
reality,  merely  a  looting  of  the  coast,  it  was  not  entirely  devoid 
of  collateral  results.  It  established  our  earliest  direct  commer- 
cial relations  with  Hawaii  and  the  Far  East ;  it  gave  to  us  our  first 
Oriental  laborers,  —  only  temporarily  it  is  true,  but  yet  important 
as  being  the  first  meeting  of  those  races  which  centuries  before  had 
separated  on  the  table-lands  of  Asia;  it  disclosed  vaguely  and 
indistinctly  the  outlines  of  our  irregular  coast  from  the  mouth  of 

276 


FUR  TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT  277 

the  Columbia  to  Cook's  Inlet;  and  it  gave  to  Eastern  lands  a 
momentary  vision  of  the  wondrous  wealth  of  this  Western  world. 

But,  from  its  very  nature  and  the  secrecy  and  spirit  of  rivalry 
which  permeated  it,  no  continuous  or  systematic  development 
could  be  expected.  The  English  who  were  engaged  in  it  found 
themselves  hampered  by  the  monopolies  of  the  South  Sea  and 
East  India  companies,  which  placed  them  at  a  disadvantage  in 
the  struggle.  And  even  the  Boston  merchants,  into  whose  hands 
the  trade  gradually  fell,  did  not,  individually,  prosecute  it  for  any 
length  of  time.  Three  or  four  years  usually  sufficed.  The  waste- 
ful competition,  the  uncertainty  of  the  markets,  the  strange  and 
expensive  restrictions  imposed  by  the  Chinese,  and  the  inability 
from  lack  of  capital  to  hold  their  stocks  of  furs  for  more  favorable 
conditions,  were  the  strongest  factors  in  effecting  this  result. 

None  of  these  maritime  traders  attempted  to  make  a  settlement 
on  our  coast;  not  one  of  them  erected  a  permanent  habitation. 
The  King  George's  Sound  Company,  which,  under  licences  from 
the  South  Sea  Company  and  the  East  India  Company,  operated 
four  vessels  in  1786-88,  contemplated  the  erection  of  trading 
posts  or  factories,  as  they  were  called,  which  would,  besides  being 
epoch-making,  have  given  an  element  of  stability  and  permanence 
to  its  undertaking.  Instructions  to  this  effect  were  given  to  Cap- 
tains Portlock  and  Dixon,  who  commanded  the  first  expedition. 
In  the  heated  discussion  between  Meares  and  Dixon,  which  fol- 
lowed the  publication  of  the  former's  mendacious  volume,  he  took 
occasion  to  jeer  at  Dixon  for  his  failure  to  obey  his  orders.  Meares 
himself  alleges,  and  in  this  case  with  apparent  truthfulness,  that 
he  intended  in  1789,  the  year  of  the  seizure  of  his  vessels,  to 
found  a  trading  post  at  Nootka  to  be  known  as  Fort  Pitt.  Cap- 
tain William  Brown,  who  in  1792  and  1793  commanded  an  expe- 
dition of  three  ships  engaged  in  this  trade,  had  instructions,  also, 
to  form  two  establishments  on  the  coast  and  another  on  the  Queen 
Charlotte  Islands.  In  this  instance  the  orders  were  likewise 
unaccountably  disobeyed.  W'hatever  the  explanation  may  be, 
the  fact  remains  that,  though  contemplated  on  these  three  occa- 
sions, at  least,  nothing  tangible  was  actually  accomplished.  Small 
houses  were  indeed  erected  in  a  number  of  cases,  as  for  instance 
by  Meares  at  Nootka  when  building  the  North  West  America  and 


278  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

by  Gray  at  Clayoquot  when  building  the  Adventure,  but  these 
were  merely  temporary  quarters  ancillary  to  those  particular 
undertakings. 

As  the  maritime  traders  pass  off  the  page  of  history  we  admit 
our  indebtedness  to  them  for  increased  knowledge  of  our  coast 
geography  and  for  a  fleeting  glance  at  the  rich  possibilities  en- 
wrapped in  our  future,  but  at  the  same  time  we  realize  that  they 
utterly  failed  to  take  advantage  of  their  opportunities  or  to  leave 
one  mark  of  civilization  within  our  borders. 

The  Astoria  venture  stands  in  an  unique  position.  It  marks 
the  transition  stage.  As  the  scheme  was  launched  it  was  a  com- 
bination of  land  fur  trade  and  maritime  fur  trade.  The  details 
of  its  plan  are  trite.  Yet  strangely  enough  so  much  stress  has 
been  laid  upon  the  formation  of  the  central  depot  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia  with  auxiliary  trading  posts  on  the  main  stream 
and  branches  of  that  river  and  the  Missouri,  and  upon  the  annual 
ship,  which,  bringing  out  the  trading  goods,  should  sail  to  China 
with  the  collected  furs,  that  the  fact  that  it  included  also  the 
prosecution  of  the  maritime  trade  has  been  lost  to  view.  Irving, 
however,  tells  us  that  as  part  of  this  gigantic,  but  ill-starred,  scheme, 
"  Coasting  craft  would  be  built  and  fitted  out  also,  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Columbia,  to  trade  at  favorable  seasons  all  along  the  North- 
west Coast  and  return  with  the  proceeds  of  their  voyages  to  this 
place  of  deposit."  The  little  schooner  Dolly  which  was  brought 
out  in  frame  was  to  carry  on  this  work,  and  it  is  well  known  that 
the  Tonquin  was  engaged  in  this  coast  trade  when  she  was  pillaged 
and  destroyed  with  all  her  crew  by  the  Indians  at  Clayoquot 
Sound,  Vancouver  Island. 

Astoria  became  by  purchase  in  1813  the  property  of  the  North 
West  Company  of  Montreal,  a  very  energetic  organization,  that 
from  1805  had  been  gradually  extending  its  trade  along  the  Fraser 
and  the  Columbia.  That  company  did  not  view  with  a  sym- 
pathetic e  e  the  maritime  trade,  which  was  quite  foreign  to  its 
genius.  It  was  managed  and  drew  its  supplies  of  men  very  largely 
from  the  Province  of  Quebec,  whence  expert  boat  and  canoe 
men  and  robust  and  hardy  voyageurs  could  be  obtained,  but 
which  was  not  capable  of  supplying  trained  and  skilled  seamen. 
An  effort  was  indeed  made,  as  Alexander  Ross  informs  us,  to  fol- 


FUR  TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT  279 

low  Astor's  idea  of  wresting  the  coast  trade  from  the  Boston  ves- 
sels, but  it  ended  in  lamentable  failure  and  the  Nor*  Westers  aban- 
doned that  trade  to  their  rivals.  They  nevertheless  continued 
the  remainder  of  the  Astoria  scheme  to  which  they  had,  so  to 
speak,  become  entitled  by  their  purchase.  For  three  years,  1814, 
1815,  and  1816,  ships  sent  from  England  deposited  at  the  Colum- 
bia mouth,  Astoria  by  them  being  renamed  Fort  George,  the 
annual  supply  of  trading  goods,  and,  having  taken  on  board  the 
furs  collected  during  the  preceding  season,  sailed  therewith  for 
Canton.  In  actual  operation  this  portion  of  the  "golden  round" 
was  found  to  be  expensive  and  unproductive  in  consequence  of 
the  restriction  of  British  subjects  from  trading  in  China  except 
under  license  from  the  East  India  Company,  inasmuch  as  that 
company  refused  to  permit  the  North  West  Company's  vessels 
to  take  return  cargoes  of  tea.  To  escape  this  loss,  arrangements 
were  made  with  Boston  merchants  (who,  of  course,  were  not 
subject  to  that  monopoly)  whereby  the  whole  transport  to  and 
from  the  mouth  of  the  Columbia  was  carried  on  by  American 
vessels.  Thus  the  steady  interchange  of  products  between 
newest  West  and  oldest  East,  begun  by  the  maritime  traders,  was 
continued  under  the  North  West  Company  regime. 

In  carrying  on  their  trade  the  Nor'  Westers  —  "the  Lords  of 
the  Lakes  and  Forests,"  as  Washington  Irving  has  called  them, 
following  the  line  of  least  resistance,  always  clung  closely  to  the 
natural  waterways  or  to  the  Indian  trails.  All  of  us  have  in 
memory's  storehouse,  as  a  result  of  our  early  reading,  vivid  pic- 
tures of  the  North  West  brigade  of  deeply  laden  canoes  manned  by 
sturdy  wyageurs,  bedizened  with  many-colored  ribbons  sweeping 
along  the  narrow  willow-embroidered  streams  of  the  interior,  and 
making  the  neighboring  hills  reecho  with  "En  roulant  ma  boule" 
or  other  French-Canadian  chansons.  It  was  no  part  of  that  com- 
pany's policy  to  build  roads  or  trails,  to  improve  communications, 
or,  generally  speaking,  to  employ  in  short  transportation  any 
beast  of  burden  but  man.  Even  along  the  main  line  of  travel  but 
little  effort  was  made  to  ameliorate  conditions.  Like  the  stolid 
Indian,  they  seemed  to  think  it  beneath  them  to  remove  any 
natural  obstruction  which  they  might  encounter. 

At  their  trading  posts,  pemmican,  that  indescribable  compound 


280  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

of  buffalo  meat,  grease,  and  berries,  was  the  staple  food ;  but  the 
policy  of  the  company  was  to  make  its  servants  live,  as  Napoleon 
thought  the  army  should,  off  the  country  occupied.  Soon  after 
the  Nor'  Westers  gained  a  foothold  west  of  the  Rockies  we  find 
in  the  vicinity  of  their  posts  the  first  rude  attempts  at  horticulture. 
Harmon,  who  was  in  charge  at  Fort  St.  James  on  Stuart  Lake,  in 
northern  British  Columbia,  writes  under  date  May  21,  1811 : 
"  As  the  frost  is  now  out  of  the  ground  we  have  planted  our  pota- 
toes, and  sowed  barley,  turnips,  etc.,  which  are  the  first  that  we 
ever  sowed  on  this  western  side  of  the  mountains." 

Soon  every  post  where  conditions  permitted  had  its  garden  pro- 
viding a  portion  of  the  food  of  the  establishment.  The  forests, 
the  lakes,  and  the  rivers  were  all  laid  under  tribute,  but  only  to 
furnish  provisions  for  the  same  purpose.  No  thought  of  devel- 
oping any  of  the  natural  resources  entered  into  the  Nor'  Westers' 
plans.  In  this  connection  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that  from 
1811  to  1813  the  company  was  engaged  in  the  struggle  with  Astor, 
and  from  the  latter  date  until  1821  went  on  the  keen  and  bitter 
strife  with  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Thus  the  whole  energy 
of  the  company  was  fully  engrossed,  and  no  opportunity  was 
offered  to  consider  expansion  along  other  lines. 

To  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  the  great  rival  of  the  Nor' 
Westers,  the  region  west  of  the  Rockies  was  for  a  century  and  a 
half  a  veritable  terra  incognita.  With  the  single  exception  of  the 
sortie  made  by  Joseph  Howse  in  1810,  no  Hudson's  Bay  trader 
crossed  that  great  range  until  after  the  union  in  1821.  George 
Simpson,  the  dominating  figure  in  the  fur-trade  for  forty  years, 
arrived  in  les  'pays  d^en  haut  in  1821  to  take  charge  of  the  Hud- 
son's Bay  Company's  business  in  Athabasca.  Knowing  that  he 
had  been  trained  in  a  counting-house  and  had  no  practical  knowl- 
edge of  the  fur-trade,  the  wintering  partners  of  the  North  West 
Company  regarded  him  with  a  scarcely  veiled  contempt.  Wentzel 
gave  expression  to  this  feeling  when  he  described  him  as  a  stranger 
and  a  gentlemanly  man,  and  ventured  the  opinion  "that  he  will 
not  create  much  alarm,  nor  do  I  presume  him  formidable  as  an 
Indian  trader."  Simpson  became  the  official  head,  on  this  conti- 
nent, of  the  united  companies,  which  from  motives  of  policy 
retained  the  name  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.    The  new 


FUR   TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT    281 

concern,  as  Edward  Ellice  stated  in  his  evidence  before  the  Par- 
liamentary Committee  in  1857,  was  "in  fact  more  a  Canadian 
than  an  English  Company  in  its  origin";  that  is  to  say,  as  Dr. 
Bryce  expresses  it,  it  was  the  fusion  of  the  stability  of  the  English 
company  and  the  energy  of  the  Canadian  combination.  The 
new  governor  soon  made  his  power  felt.  King  Log  became  King 
Stork.  Within  three  years  Wentzel  acknowledged  his  prophecy 
to  be  at  fault:  "the  North  West  is  now  beginning  to  be  ruled," 
says  he,  "with  a  rod  of  iron." 

The  union  having  brought  industrial  peace,  Simpson  set  him- 
self to  the  systematic  up-building  of  the  fur-trade  and  the  devel- 
opment of  subsidiary  operations.  Six  trading  posts  on  the  Colum- 
bia and  seven  on  the  Eraser  then  existed,  representing  the  results 
achieved  by  the  North  West  Company  in  fifteen  years.  Arriv- 
ing on  the  Pacific  coast  in  1824,  Simpson  found  the  coast  trade 
practically  monopolized  by  itinerant  trading  vessels.  He  deter- 
mined upon  an  energetic  policy  —  the  driving  of  these  maritime 
traders  from  the  field  and  the  complete  control  of  the  trade  of  the 
whole  coast  from  San  Francisco  to  the  frozen  North.  The  first 
hint  of  this  policy  was  given  in  the  winter  of  1824,  when  the  ex- 
amination of  the  lower  Eraser  was  undertaken  by  McMillan,  not 
only  to  select  a  site  for  a  coast  trading  post,  but  also  to  ascertain 
the  latent  possibilities  of  the  region  in  agriculture  and  in  the 
fishery.  Three  years  later  —  for  the  company  moved  slowly, 
all  its  undertakings  requiring  the  formal  approval  of  the  council 
of  chief  factors  at  Norway  House  —  Fort  Langley  was  built. 
Pending  the  erection  of  other  trading  posts  to  the  northward,  the 
nucleus  of  a  fleet  to  compete  for  the  coast  trade  was  organized, 
the  Cadboro  and  the  Vancouver,  soon  to  be  followed  by  the  Llama, 
the  Dryad,  and,  last  and  best  known,  the  historic  steamer  Beaver. 
Then  came  a  period  of  strenuous  effort  both  on  land  and  sea. 
Having  in  1830  established  Fort  Simpson  on  the  coast,  at  the 
northern  fringe  of  British  Columbia,  to  intercept  not  only  the 
maritime  trade,  but  also  that  carried  on  by  Russia  on  the  lisiere 
defined  in  the  treaties  of  1824  and  1825,  it  was  determined  to 
build  a  trading  post  beyond  the  limits  of  the  coastal  strip  to  cut 
off  the  trade  of  the  interior.  In  1833  Peter  Skene  Ogden  examined 
the  Stikine  River  for  the  site  of  such  a  post.     No  objection  was 


282  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

made  by  the  Russian  American  Company,  but  when,  in  the  fol- 
lowing May,  Ogden  arrived  with  men  and  materials  to  carry  the 
project  into  execution,  the  Russians,  in  breach  of  the  treaty, 
prevented  him  by  force  from  navigating  the  river  across  the  ten- 
marine-league  strip.  In  the  same  year  Fort  McLoughlin  was 
built  on  Milbank  Sound,  further  to  the  southward,  to  compete 
with  the  trading  vessels.  The  Cadboro^  the  Vancouver,  and  the 
Dryad  were  kept  constantly  along  the  northern  coast  to  increase 
the  opposition.  To  prevent  the  trade  of  the  hinterland  from 
reaching  either  the  American  trading  vessels  or  the  Russian  posts, 
the  company  made  its  way  into  northwestern  British  Columbia, 
that  vast  alpine  region  where,  amid  lakes  and  mountains,  nature 
reigns  in  loneliness  and  cloud.  In  1834,  the  very  year  of  Ogden's 
unsuccessful  efforts,  McLeod  examined  and  explored  the  head- 
waters of  the  Stikine,  and  shortly  afterwards  Robert  Campbell 
established  a  post  of  the  company  on  Dease  Lake. 

Out  of  the  unlawful  prevention  of  Ogden's  venture  grew  a 
claim  for  damages  against  the  Russian  company,  which  was  ulti- 
mately settled  in  1839  by  the  grant  of  a  lease  of  the  strip  of  Alaskan 
territory  from  54°  40'  to  Mount  Fairweather,  together  with  all 
the  Russian  establishments  within  those  limits.  But  in  the 
meantime  the  company's  efforts  had  been  so  successful  that  the 
trading  vessels  had  abandoned  the  struggle.  Thus  by  1839  the 
company  was  in  practically  undisputed  control  of  the  fur  trade 
from  the  Rockies  to  the  coast  and  from  San  Francisco  to  the 
60th  parallel  of  latitude. 

But  Governor  Simpson's  policy  extended  beyond  the  mere 
absorption  of  that  trade.  He  was  not  content  to  make  the  land 
support  the  trading  ports  as  his  predecessors  had  done.  The 
resources  of  the  country  having  been  searched  out  and  examined, 
he  proceeded  to  exploit  them,  to  build  up  new  industries,  and 
establish  new  lines  of  trade.  In  this  connection  it  mUvSt  be  re- 
membered that  the  chartered  rights  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Com- 
pany only  existed  east  of  the  Rockies.  There  it  held  the  exclusive 
trade  and  the  territorial  lordship  of  the  vaguely  defined  Rupert's 
Land  and  the  still  vaguer  grant  of  the  trade  of  all  regions  to  which 
access  from  Rupert's  Land  might  be  found  by  water.  West  of 
that  great  range  in  the  Oregon  Territory,  as  the  region  was  after- 


FUR  TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT  283 

wards  known,  the  company  had  no  rights  whatever  until  after  the 
union  of  1821.  There,  it  was  (except  after  1849  as  regards  Van- 
couver Island)  a  mere  trading  corporation  having  no  proprietor- 
ship, no  lordship  of  the  soil,  nothing  but  a  mere  revocable  license 
of  exclusive  trade  with  the  Indians.  This  monopoly  was  only 
valid  against  British  subjects.  It  did  not  confer  nor  attempt  to 
confer  any  rights  whatever  as  regards  other  nationalities.  Con- 
sequently, in  the  branching  out  into  the  various  lines  of  develop- 
ment of  natural  resources  the  company  was  only  exercising  a  right 
open  to  every  other  person  or  corporation  that  might  desire  to 
exercise  it. 

The  small  gardens  of  the  Nor'  Westers  now  expanded  into  a 
semblance  of  farming.  The  first  rude  attempts  at  agriculture  in 
New  Caledonia,  —  the  interior  of  British  Columbia,  —  were  made 
in  1830.  In  McLean's  Twenty-five  Years  in  Hudson's  Bay 
Territory,  he  says :  "  To  Mr.  Dease,  however,  the  praise  is  due 
of  having  introduced  this  new  order  of  things;  he  it  was  who 
first  introduced  cattle  from  Fort  Vancouver ;  it  was  he  who  first 
introduced  farming  and  recommended  it  to  others."  In  a  letter 
preserved  in  the  Archives  of  British  Columbia,^  Dr.  McLoughlin 
gives  the  motives  which  induced  him  to  take  this  course,  not  only 
in  British  Columbia,  but  also  throughout  the  whole  of  his  king- 
dom. "  If  it  had  not  been  for  the  great  expense  of  importing  flour 
from  Europe,  the  serious  injury  it  received  on  the  voyage,  and  the 
absolute  necessity  of  being  independent  of  the  Indians  for  provi- 
sions, I  would  never  have  encouraged  farming  in  this  country,  but 
it  was  impossible  to  carry  on  the  trade  without  it."  Wheat  was 
raised  in  the  Columbia  River  region  and  in  central  and  northern 
British  Columbia  even  as  far  as  Fort  Alexandria  in  Latitude  52° 
33',  where  forty  bushels  to  the  acre  and  of  the  finest  quality  were 
obtained.  In  that  inaccessible  interior  this  was  converted  into 
flour  for  the  use  of  the  post,  by  means  of  a  small  mill  operated  by 
horses.  As  the  farming  operations  increased,  a  good  market  for 
the  surplus  product  was  found  in  the  men-of-war  on  the  coast  and 
in  the  Hawaiian  Islands.  Herds  of  cattle  and  sheep  were  reared 
for  the  support  of  the  posts,  but  this  industry  soon  exceeded  the 

1  This  letter  has  since  been  published.  It  will  be  found  in  The  American  His- 
torical Review  for  October,  1915. 


284  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

requirements  of  the  company  and  the  surplus  found  its  way  to  the 
same  markets.  To  handle  this  business  to  advantage  the  com- 
pany was  compelled  to  extend  its  operations  beyond  the  confines 
of  this  continent  and  establish  a  trading  post  on  the  Hawaiian 
Islands. 

The  terms  of  the  lease  arranged  with  the  Russian  American 
Company  in  1839  required  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company  to  supply 
annually  eight  tons  of  flour,  six  and  a  half  tons  of  peas,  six  and  a 
half  tons  of  grits  and  hulled  barley,  fifteen  tons  of  salt  beef,  eight 
tons  of  butter,  and  one  and  a  half  tons  of  ham.  The  prices  agreed 
upon  were  such  that  the  company  could  not  afford  to  import 
these  goods,  but  must  obtain  them  upon  this  coast.  At  the  out- 
set the  Columbia  River  and  Puget  Sound  districts  furnished  these 
supplies,  but  political  reasons  soon  led  the  company  to  develop 
farming  on  a  large  scale  in  British  Columbia,  at  Fort  Langley  and 
Fort  Victoria.  In  the  end  this  branch  of  industry  became  so 
extensive  and  required  so  much  capital  that  a  subsidiary  corpo- 
ration, known  as  the  Puget  Sound  Agricultural  Company,  was 
formed  to  carry  it  on. 

The  detern*Jnation  of  Governor  Simpson  to  employ  horses  to 
transport  the  trading  goods  and  furs  from  Fort  Okanogan  on  the 
Columbia  to  Fort  Alexandria  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Fraser 
made  it  necessary  for  the  company,  following  its  avowed  policy 
of  being  independent  of  the  Indian  support,  to  enter  largely  into 
stock-raising.  Horses  were  also  employed  in  the  transport  be- 
tween Fort  Kamloops  and  Forts  Yale  and  Hope.  At  Fort  Alex- 
andria a  herd  of  about  two  hundred  horses  was  maintained,  while 
in  the  vicinity  of  Kamloops,  for  many  years,  the  company's  band 
numbered  between  five  and  six  hundred.  This  form  of  land 
conveyance  was  known  as  the  horse  brigade.  In  connection 
therewith  the  company  built  trails  through  the  interior  of  British 
Columbia,  —  the  brigade  trails,  as  they  were  called  —  which 
later  served  as  means  of  communication  for  the  early  settlers. 

The  wealth  of  the  waters  was  not  overlooked.  No  longer  was 
the  trader  satisfied  to  regard  it  merely  as  a  source  of  the  food 
supply  of  the  post ;  the  possibility  of  curing  fish  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities to  establish  it  as  a  part  of  an  export  trade  was  constantly  in 
mind.    At  Nanaimo  great  quantities  of  herring  were  caught  and 


FUR  TRADE  IN  NORTHWESTERN  DEVELOPMENT    285 

salted  for  the  use  of  the  company's  posts,  but,  so  far  as  my 
research  has  extended,  no  record  exists  of  any  export.  Archibald 
McDonald  tells  us  that  when  he  arrived  to  take  charge  of  Fort 
Langley  in  September,  1828,  less  than  a  year  after  its  inception,  he 
found  in  the  provision  shed,  besides  other  supplies,  three  thousand 
dried  salmon  and  sixteen  tierces  of  salted  salmon.  The  produc- 
tion increased  annually.  Governor  Simpson,  writing  in  November, 
1841,  says  that  Langley,  after  supplying  itself  and  the  other  posts, 
had  some  four  hundred  barrels  of  salted  salmon  for  export.  In 
1840,  when  James  Douglas  was  examining  the  northern  waters  for 
a  fort  site,  he  noted  the  abundance  of  excellent  salmon,  and  in  his 
report  mentions  the  possibility  of  developing  a  valuable  auxiliary 
business  therefrom.  Later  in  the  same  document,  in  dealing  with 
the  prospects  of  Fort  Stikine,  one  of  the  northern  posts,  he  says : 
"If  barrels  could  be  provided,  one  hundred  tierces  of  salmon 
might  be  cured  annually  at  this  place,  for  exportation,  in  addition 
to  the  quantity  required  for  its  own  consumption."  From  San 
Juan  Island  alone,  the  company  for  many  years  exported  from 
two  thousand  to  three  thousand  barrels  of  salted  salmon. 

Meares  was  the  first  to  recognize  the  great  possibilities  of  our 
lumber  resources.  In  1788,  if  he  is  to  be  believed,  he  shipped 
some  spars  to  China,  the  first  export  of  timber  from  the  northwest 
coast.  From  that  time  the  trade  lay  dormant  until  after  the 
advent  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company.  Within  the  area  now 
known  as  British  Columbia  small  mills  were  established,  notably 
at  Victoria  and  Nanaimo,  but  these  were  entirely  for  the  com- 
pany's own  purposes.  From  the  Columbia  River  sawn  lumber 
was  manufactured  and  shipped  to  the  Hawaiian  Islands. 

In  1835  coal  was  discovered  by  the  oflScers  of  the  Hudson's 
Bay  Company  at  Suquash,  on  the  northern  end  of  Vancouver 
Island.  This  important  event  synchronized  with  the  arrival  of 
the  celebrated  steamer  Beaver ^  the  first  steam  vessel  on  the  Pacific. 
The  earliest  coal  mining,  if  it  can  be  dignified  by  that  name,  was 
done  for  the  company  by  the  Indians  in  that  vicinity.  On  one 
occasion,  with  hatchets  and  other  primitive  and  unsuitable  imple- 
ments, the  natives  procured  about  ninety  tons  in  a  few  days.  The 
company  was  also  aware  of  the  coal  beds  of  Puget  Sound ;  and, 
from    1845,   when  that   indefatigable  traveller  Father  DeSmet 


286  THE  PACIFIC  OCEAN  IN  HISTORY 

passed  through  the  Kootenay  region,  the  existence  of  the  now 
famous  Crow's  Nest  Pass  coal  fields  was  known.  It  was  not, 
however,  until  the  company  obtained  its  grant  of  Vancouver 
Island  that  any  real  attempt  was  made  to  mine  coal  in  this  coun- 
try, and  this  was  done,  not  as  a  subsidiary  undertaking  to  that  of 
fur  trading,  but  as  a  part  of  a  colonization  scheme. 

In  conclusion,  let  us  add  a  word  in  reference  to  that  necessity 
of  modern  life,  the  postal  service.  The  annual  brigades  of  the 
fur  companies  furnished  to  the  resident  traders  the  only  means  of 
communication  with  the  outside  world.  We  have  here  the  germ 
of  our  express  and  post-office.  How  eagerly  these  opportunities 
were  seized,  how  anxiously  they  were  looked  for,  how  proficient 
these  traders  became  in  the  art  of  letter-writing  the  few  remains 
of  their  correspondence  which  have  come  down  to  us  bear  eloquent 
witness.  For  some  time  these  facilities  were  extended  to  strangers, 
free  of  charge,  but  in  June,  1845,  the  council  at  Norway  House 
decreed  that  postage  on  letters  should  be  charged  west  of  the 
Rockies.  Letters  to  and  from  the  Columbia  River  region  not 
exceeding  half  an  ounce  were  to  be  transmitted  for  one  dollar, 
with  a  further  charge  of  twenty-five  cents  for  every  succeeding 
half  ounce. 

And  here  let  us  leave  the  subject,  but  in  so  doing  it  must  be 
remarked  that  in  the  economic  development  of  this  western  land 
the  fur  trader  had  his  part ;  a  small  one,  it  is  true,  and  yet  an  im- 
portant one,  as  we  have  endeavored  to  show,  in  that  he  not  only 
ascertained  its  possibilities  in  many  ways  and  the  existence 
of  theretofore  unknown  natural  wealth,  but  also,  especially  in  the 
case  of  the  Hudson's  Bay  Company,  made  a  beginning  in  their 
exploitation,  and  thus  pointed  out  to  the  home-builder,  who  in 
the  natural  evolution  must  follow  him,  the  paths  which  have  led 
us  to  the  proud  position  of  to-day. 


>:"mi 


14  DAY  USE 

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